TFC has covered the waterfront of emotions since it started in March 2008. The last show was no different.

The program has been reinvented on a regular basis in terms of presentation, but its heart never changed.

This sometimes perplexing, never dull and not-as-strange-as-it-seemed program had integrity.

And so it goes.

A wonderful journey ends.

This blog will stick around and become a place for Andy to offer some genral observations of the human, musical and Australian condition. If you want to still hear him, give ABC 1 a shot at 7.30 on Friday nights! His Twittering moves to @obelloz.

Hikaru moves on to his very own show at 1800 on Saturdays on Joy 94.9, “The Affair” will be a very different brouhaha for Hikaru, give him your ears and much more.

Without the remarkable participation of the listeners, Tim Harrison and Hikaru Freeman, TFC’s caravan may not have got as far as this.

Andy did about 235 of the 252 shows and, in a 30+ year broadcasting career, says he hasn’t done anything better.

And the final closedown is from radio and involves clipped tones, a coughing fit and the end of what was far more important in a radio sense than little old TFC.

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Closing – Alan Bennett

Ring My Bell – Anita Ward

Overture – Momoe Yamaguchi

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – Tom Jones

Lonely Weekends – Charlie Rich

I Only Want To Be With You – Dusty Springfield

I Came From Yokosuka – Momoe Yamaguchi

Macarthur Park – The Negro Problem

If It’s Magic – Stevie Wonder

The Longest Goodbye – Sandra Lawrence

One More Mile – Anita O’Day

Let’s Do It (Love Is Like I Thought It Would Be) – Minako Yoshida

What Can I Do For You? – Labelle

Eyes Without A Face – Paul Anka

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Johnny Mercer & Margaret Whiting

Carribean Clipper – NZ Army Band

Here You Come Again – Dolly Parton

Rebels Are We – Chic

The Best Is Yet To Come – Mabel Mercer

Als Het Om De Liefde Gaat – Sandra & Andres

Andy was 13 when this jaunty number had a big effect on him. The fashion sense, the language, the sideburns – his life was never the same.

On the eve of the Italian election TFC wonders out loud about matters italiano as well as launching forth onto various debates about this, that and, most definitely, the other.

The next TFC will be on March 9th – next week Joy will broadcast from the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Now to the closedown for this week MTN9 Griffith.

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Non Arrenderti Mai, Uomo – Mina & Milva

The Italian version on the gospel song “Keep Your Hand On the Plough. Mina is an icon of Italian music. Think Germaine Greer + Vanessa Redgrave meets Barbra Streisand. She was banned from Italian TV & Radio in 1963 after her pregnancy and relationship with a married actor.

The Boxer – Uncle Monkey

I’m On My Way – The Proclaimers

Scottish to their spectacle frames and why not ?

Peg – Steely Dan

Let the Beat Hit ‘Em – Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam

A big New York R&B/Urban Pop band from the mid 80s & early 90s.

You Are Not My First Love – Mabel Mercer

Often talked of as one of the greatest tellers of a story in song. Video evidence doesn’t do her any justice, although thee is a suggestion 0f the hold she would have had over a cabaret venue in her pomp.

The three gentlemen who have been at the epicentre of the Full Catastrophe over the last five years came together for a special program at the very usual time as part of TFC’s farewell from the Joy airwaves.

Goodness. Gracious. Us.

This week’s closedown is a real pearler.

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Danger Zone – Mercy Dee Walton

Too Close For Comfort – Rosemary Clooney

Beard With Glue – Bad Lip Reading

Happy Birthday Helen – Things of Stone and Wood

Old Man Mose – Eddy Duchin

Tell Him – Billie Davis

The Limelight of Love – Seikou Nagaoka

Deeper Water – Deadstar

Passing Time – The Hipsters

How About You – Gianni Marinvicci

Let’s Go fishing! Go and Shake The Pole! – DANCEMAN

Good`Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day

Porpoise Song – The Monkees

Reach Out and Touch the Dog (Tim Harrison’s mash-up of Personal Jesus/Beware of the Dog) – Depeche Mode vs. Jamelia

18-35, considered by many marketers to be the prime demographic. They’re the ones who have the highest spending power and the highest control of it.

We’re the ones who are first in mind of all those media and marketing execs when the latest blockbuster is released at the theatres, or when that show can’t stand seems to still be on the air for its umpteenth series.

This coming Wednesday I turn 34. I wholeheartedly embrace it.

Really, I do.

But not all 18-35s are created equal.

So as I prepare to enter a deeper twilight of being the most desirable demographic, I decided to take a merry little stroll through some of my musical memories of a fully Catastrophic year spent on The Full Catastrophe, while also sharing some songs that I’ve been wanting to share with all you Catastrophettes worldwide.

I’d like to end this preamble with two of my favourite scenes from Designing Women.

I could use the most recent closedown (which in its self is pretty rare in the US these days) from 2006, which you can see here from WCGV in Milwaukee, but for true nostalgia and to show you what I grew up with, it’d be only right to use the classic 1971 version. This version called “Flag Evolution” was considered so perfect that I remember it being used all the way up until the late 1990s. In fact, WITI-TV in Milwaukee resurrected it once in 2004 one time when the analog transmitter needed maintenance.

If you ever want to get a quick primer in US History (well at least up until 1971), this is it. Pay attention to the stars.

And finally, TVNZ. Presented here not just because I think it is one of the best ever closedowns created, but also because my birthday also happens to be Waitangi Day, so on some level I feel quite close to New Zealand.

Town – Minako Yoshida

(For two weeks last year, Town was a closer on TFC, it’s only fair that Minako Yoshida’s funk opus be featured at the very top of the show. This is the live version.)

Hole in My Heart – Cyndi Lauper

(Vibes was one of my favourite movies growing up. I was 9 when it came out, so I was old enough to go see it. Although panned at the box office, Cyndi did an amazing job acting, and is in my mind as a great a comedic actress as a singer. Here she is performing the song in Yokohama, which is interestingly enough home to a significant Chinese community.)

Gone with the Night – Patrice Rushen

I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On – Mariah Carey

(Glitter was also panned at the box office, although it did also suffer from being a camp movie set in New York and released roughly around the same time as the events of 11 September 2001. Nonetheless, Mariah Carey–who in my view is very good at singing upbeat R&B and sadly doesn’t do it too often–manages to outdo both Cherelle (the original singer of “I didn’t mean to turn you on”) and Robert Palmer (whose cover was very big in the 1980s) with her version.)

Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’ – Mayer Hawthorne

(Mayer is from Detroit, and you can definitely hear the influence of classic Motown in his music. 2 February also happens to be his birthday, and he’s turning 34 as well.)

Can’t Get Enough – Junko Ohashi

Disco Hit Mix – Nuša Derenda & Alenka Godec

(From the only country with “love” in it, as RTVSLO is fond of reminding us every year come Eurovision time. Nuša has built a pretty solid career from her Eurovision days when she sang “Energy” in Copenhagen. Alenka has done several EMAs, but has yet to get the nod. Here’s La Derenda performing a medley of EMA hits–mostly hers.)

(It was only a matter of time that I get to she who proves that Hikaru is a gender neutral name. Hikaru Utada was raised in New York City and has pretty much steadfastly refused to follow any drum but her own. She’s released two English albums to moderate success, but her JPop work is considerably better known. Travelling is my favourite song of hers. She wound up marrying the director of the video, probably because he certainly captures her quirkiness excellently.)

(Swing Out Sister is one of my earliest musical memories. To a young child who felt “stuck” in drab Milwaukee, they personified the height of cool. My late mother and I would listen to them whenever we went on long drives, most often to the airport. To this very day, whenever I hear them I’m transported to a world of amusing adventures of the well-travelled.)

Get It Right – Aretha Franklin

(Sister Sha-Pow has the Beyonce prayer, I have the Aretha moment. No show is ever right without Aretha.)

Do I Have To Do It All Over Again? – The Monkees

(See this week’s Must Watch Radio for more about The Monkees & Head. Pre-fab or not, they reclaimed themselves rightly as artists by the end.)

Fiesta – Soulhead

(I reckon we can call them Australia’s Own, as they lived here and in NZ for a year improving their English pronunciation. The video is a very impressive homage to “Gonna Make U Sweat” by C + C Music Factory. And yes, the fact that homages to early 1990s music popping up in 2007 does make me feel the hand of time.)

GALAXY BOY – Aira Mitsuki

(This edition’s WJTs are WJT-y in exclesis. Make no bones about it, Aira is auto-tuned to the max, and the video is a homage to both 80s anime, in particular City Hunter.)

(Susumu Hirasawa is on some level the Japanese Peter Gabriel if Peter Gabriel never had a pop period in the 80s. He revels in his weirdness, knowing that it’s backed up by solid musical genius. He’s been a maverick since the 1980s and that is a great thing.)

Secret Love – Mariya Takeuchi

Di Fronte All’Amore – Dusty Springfield

(In the 1960s Dusty Springfield was practically a standard feature of the Sanremo songfestival in Italy. In my opinion, this is her best Sanremo song. The English version is called “I Will Always Love You.”)

(BONUS: As was often the style of the time, Dusty was paired with an Italian artist, in the case of “Di Fronte All’Amore, it was Gianni Mascolo, who represented Switzerland in 1968. Here is his version for comparison.)

Beat Don’t Stop – C-ROD featuring Jason Walker

(Jason Walker’s music was the sound of my New York years (2001-2009). This is his latest collaboration with C-Rod. He wears the moniker “Diva Jason Walker” with serious pride.)

Boogie Woogie Train of Love – Ann Lewis

(Ann nearly made it into ZiSam. She had a sadly brief disco period between her early period as a sugary sweet idol singer in the 1970s and hard rock singer in the 1980s.)